Archive for the 'International Criminal Court' Category

It has been over a year since Palestine became a member of the International Criminal Court (ICC) and the ICC’s Office of the Prosecutor (OTP) began its preliminary examination of the “situation in Palestine.” While Israel’s almost complete refusal to cooperate with the ICC on matters related to Palestine has hindered the examination, Israel is not the only impediment to justice being served: The OTP itself has played a key role in stymieing the process. 1 Read more »

June 05th, 2016 Comments Off on Human Rights Watch says formal probe should be opened into Palestinian cause

PRESS STATEMENT
Human Rights Watch New York

Human Rights Watch issued its statement on the 49th anniversary of the start of the June 1967 (or Six Day) War that resulted in the occupation of the Palestinian territories.

The ICC treaty officially went into effect for Palestine on April 1, 2015, giving the court jurisdiction over serious crimes in violation of international law, including war crimes and crimes against humanity committed on or from Palestinian territory. On January 1, 2015, the Palestinian government gave the court a mandate back to June 13, 2014, to cover the 2014 conflict in Gaza.

Based on her policy for responding to declarations accepting the court’s jurisdiction, Bensouda opened a preliminary examination into the situation in Palestine on January 16, 2015. During the preliminary examination phase, the prosecutor determines whether the criteria have been met to merit pursuing a formal investigation on the basis of information that is either publicly available or submitted to her office. Human Rights Watch wrote to Bensouda in November 2015, to share materials from its own research that are relevant to her inquiry. Read more »

June 13th, 2015 Comments Off on Israel whitewashes beach bloodbath that killed four kids

The Israeli army late Thursday announced it is closing its probe into its killing of four children from the Bakr family playing football on a Gaza beach, saying the “tragic” attack had not violated international law.

Many foreign journalists were near the beach at the time of the attack, and witnessed the atrocity.

The four cousins, nine year old Mohamed Ramez Bakr, Ahed Atef Bakr and Zakaria Ahed Bakr, 10, and Ismail Mohamed Bakr, 11, were playing on the beach in Gaza City on July 16, 2014 when they were hit in two separate strikes. Read more »

Netanyahu has no place speaking before the General Assembly of the United Nations – the only place he should be speaking is before the International Criminal Court in the Hague charged with war crimes, genocide, incitement to genocide and responsibility for the horrific massacres against the Palestinian people.

The criminal Benjamin Netanyahu is now using the arena of the United Nations to continue his deception, lies, threats, intimidation and misdirection, attempting to cover up his and his army’s terror massacres against Palestinian civilians, children and elders, who are still being killed in cold blood in full view of the world, said the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine in response to Netanyahu’s speech at the UN General Assembly.

The Front noted that Netanyahu tried and failed to assume the role of the victim, marketing the Zionist narrative and attempting to discredit the Palestinian resistance factions by putting it in one basket with terror organizations created and supported by the U.S. and Western powers. Read more »

11 story residential apartment building in Gaza City destroyed by Israeli airstrike yesterday

August 24, 2014 “ICH” – The National Lawyers Guild (NLG), Center for Constitutional Rights, International Association of Democratic Lawyers, Arab Lawyers Union, and American Association of Jurists (Asociacion Americana de Juristas) sent a letter on Friday, August 22 to Fatou Bensouda, Prosecutor of the International Criminal Court (ICC), urging her to initiate an investigation of war crimes, genocide, and crimes against humanity committed by Israeli leaders and aided and abetted by U.S. officials in Gaza. Under the Rome Statute, the ICC has the power to hold individuals criminally accountable for the most serious of crimes.

“In light of the extreme gravity of the situation in the occupied Gaza Strip, in particular the large number of civilian casualties and large scale destruction of civilian property, including schools, mosques and hospitals, and the ongoing incitement to genocide perpetrated by Israeli political figures and leaders, the [NLG] and endorsing organizations strongly urge the Office of the Prosecutor to use its power under Article 15 of the Rome Statute to initiate a preliminary investigation” of crimes within the ICC’s jurisdiction. Read more »